Chapter 82 82
Annabeth's POV:
The first hour was the worst.
Kaelen drove with both hands on the wheel, ten and two, like somebody's dad, which would've been funny if everything wasn't so completely not funny. His jaw was tight and his eyes kept flicking to the rearview mirror every thirty seconds, checking Marcus's headlights behind us, checking the road, checking Lucian who had fallen asleep against the window about fifteen minutes in with his mouth half open.
Marlen was awake. Very awake. I could feel her watching the back of my head from behind Kaelen's seat, sizing me up, cataloging every movement I made. She hadn't said a word since we got in the car. Just climbed into the backseat with Lucian, buckled in, and started staring.
The dashboard clock said 9:47. Two more hours to go.
"You can change the radio if you want," Kaelen said. His voice cut through the silence and I almost jumped.
"I'm fine."
"You've been sitting there with your hands in your lap for thirty minutes."
"I'm thinking."
"About what?"
I shot him a look. About what. About everything, obviously. About the Order, about Sarah crying on the phone when I called her, about how I had exactly one bag with maybe clothes for four days and my phone charger and a toothbrush and a couple more things and that was it, that was my entire life now, one goddamn bag—
"I can feel you spiraling," Kaelen said quietly.
"I'm not spiraling."
"Your emotions are all over the bond. It's like standing next to a microwave."
"Did you just compare me to a microwave?"
"A loud one. With something metal inside."
I laughed before I could stop myself. It came out weird, half-choked, but it was still a laugh. Kaelen's mouth twitched.
"Better," he said.
The road was dark, like actually dark, none of those highway lights anymore, just trees on both sides pressing in like walls. Marcus's headlights were a steady presence in the mirror, never too close, never too far. Following. Watching. He’d given Kaelen the exact location of the cabin and now was behind our car to make sure no one was following us.
I reached for the console between us, not really thinking about it, and my fingers brushed Kaelen's hand in a moment when it rested near the gear shift. He went still. I felt it through the bond, this sharp spike of... I don't know. Want, maybe. Something that made the air in the car get about ten degrees warmer.
His pinky hooked around mine. Just that. Nothing else. But god, the way my heart started pounding you'd think he'd just, I don't know, thrown me against a wall or something.
"Annabeth," he said, voice lower than before.
"What."
"We have an audience."
Right. Marlen. Who was definitely still staring at the back of my head and definitely saw our hands on the console and was definitely forming opinions about it. I couldn’t blame her, the last thing she’d known about us is that we had broken up totally and dramatically and irrevocably, and that her brother was not even eating or sleeping because of that.
I pulled my hand back. Crossed my arms. Stared out the windshield at nothing.
The silence stretched. Lucian made a snoring noise and shifted, his head dropping to the other side. The kid could sleep through anything, apparently. Must be nice.
We drove in silence for another twenty minutes. The gas gauge was getting low and I was about to say something when Kaelen's phone buzzed. He glanced at it, then at the mirror.
"Marcus says there's a station in three miles. We stop for gas, bathroom, nothing else. Five minutes max."
"Okay."
The gas station appeared out of nowhere, this sad little building with flickering lights and one other car parked by the pumps, some rusty pickup with a dog in the back. Marcus pulled into the spot behind us and cut his engine but stayed in the car.
"Marlen, wake up Lucian. Bathroom break."
"I don't have to pee."
"Then don't pee. But we're not stopping again for two hours."
She sighed dramatically but shook Lucian's shoulder. He blinked awake looking confused, saw the gas station, and immediately climbed out mumbling something about snacks.
"No snacks," Kaelen called after him. "Bathroom only."
Lucian ignored him and walked toward the convenience store anyway. Marlen followed, probably to supervise, probably to get snacks herself while making sure Lucian didn't do anything stupid.
And then it was just us.
Kaelen got out to pump gas. I stayed in the passenger seat for about ten seconds before the walls of the car started feeling too close. I opened the door and stepped out into the cold air.
Kaelen was standing by the pump, watching the numbers tick up. The fluorescent lights made his face look sharper, the shadows under his eyes darker. He looked tired. He looked beautiful. I hated that I noticed.
I walked over and stood next to him. Not touching. Just... close.
"Hey," he said.
"Hey."
"You okay?"
"No. You?"
"No."
We stood there watching gas pump into the tank. The numbers climbed. $23.47. $24.12. $25.03.
"I keep thinking about my room," I said suddenly.
Kaelen didn't say anything. Just reached over and took my hand, lacing his fingers through mine. His skin was warm, always warm, that dragon heat running just under the surface.
"We'll go back," he said. "Eventually. When it's safe."
"When will it be safe?"
He didn't answer. We both knew he couldn't.
The gas pump clicked off. $38.22. Kaelen hung it up and turned to face me, still holding my hand. The fluorescent lights buzzed overhead, that annoying electric hum that gets into your teeth.
"Annabeth."
"Yeah."
"I want to kiss you right now. Like... badly. Like kiss you a lot."
My stomach flipped. "We can't. Your siblings—"
"I know. I'm just telling you. I want to."
His thumb traced circles on the back of my hand. Slow and deliberate. I could feel every nerve ending in my body light up, this ridiculous overreaction to barely being touched, but the bond made everything more intense, every sensation doubled or tripled until I could barely think straight.
"When we get there," I said. My voice came out weird. "The cabin. How many bedrooms?"
"I don't know. Marcus only mentioned it was big enough for everyone."
"So probably separate rooms."
"Probably."
"Thin walls?"
"Annabeth." His voice had dropped, rougher now. "You're not helping."
"I'm not trying to help. I'm just asking questions."
He stepped closer. Close enough that I could smell him, and that always made part of my brain go completely offline. His free hand came up to my jaw, tilting my face toward his.
"If I start something here," he said quietly, "I'm not gonna want to stop. And we have about ninety seconds before Lucian comes back with stolen Doritos."
"He's stealing Doritos?"
"He always steals Doritos. It's a whole thing. Marlen covers for him."
I laughed, this breathless weird laugh, and Kaelen smiled, actually smiled, and for a second I forgot we were running, forgot the Order was after us, forgot everything except the way his eyes looked in this terrible gas station lighting.
Then the convenience store door banged open and Lucian walked out with his jacket zipped suspiciously high.
"Really, Lucian?" Kaelen called.
"I paid for them!"
"With what money?"
"...Marlen's money."
"Did Marlen agree to that?"
"She will. Eventually."
Marlen emerged behind him looking pissed. "He owes me four dollars. I'm keeping track."
"I said I'd pay you back!"
"You still owe me from the last three times."
We all got back in the car. Lucian ripped open the Doritos immediately and the smell filled the space, artificial cheese and whatever else they put in those things. Marlen made a disgusted noise but took one when he offered.
Marcus's headlights came back on behind us. Kaelen started the engine.
Another hour and a half. We could do this.
My hand found the console again. This time Kaelen's fingers intertwined with mine without hesitation, hidden in the dark between the seats where Marlen couldn't see. Or maybe could see and just chose not to comment. Hard to tell with that kid.
The road got darker as we drove further north. No more gas stations, no more other cars, just trees and the occasional deer eye reflecting our headlights. Lucian finished his Doritos and fell asleep again, this time with his head on Marlen's shoulder. She didn't push him off.
"Tell me something," Kaelen said quietly. "Something that has nothing to do with dragons or the Order or any of this."
I thought about it. "I failed my driver's test the first time."
"Really?"
"Parallel parking. I hit the cone so hard it flew into the next lane."
He laughed, this surprised bark of sound that he immediately tried to muffle. "How hard were you going?"
"I panicked and forgot to brake."
"Oh my god."
"The instructor had to grab the wheel. He refused to get in a car with me for six months after that."
"But you passed eventually."
"Third try. Sarah made me practice in an empty parking lot for like forty hours straight."
We were both smiling now, stupid smiles that didn't match the situation at all. His thumb was still tracing circles on my hand. I leaned my head against the seat and watched his profile in the dark, the sharp line of his nose, the way his hair fell across his forehead.
This was insane. We were literally fleeing for our lives and I was sitting here cataloging his facial features like some kind of lovesick idiot. But the bond hummed warm between us, steady and alive, and for the first time in hours I didn't feel like the walls were closing in.
"Kaelen," I said.
"Yeah?"
"When we get to the cabin..."
"Yeah?"
I didn't know how to finish the sentence. When we get to the cabin, what? Kiss me properly? Touch me without an audience? Figure out what the hell we're doing?
"Just... don't let go yet," I said instead.
His fingers tightened around mine. "I'm not going anywhere."
The road curved through the trees. Marcus's headlights followed. Marlen's breathing evened out as she finally fell asleep too, Lucian drooling on her shoulder.
And Kaelen and I sat in the front, holding hands in the dark, driving toward a place none of us had ever been, hoping it would be enough to keep us alive.